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11.4 The Transition to All-Steel Swords 11.4.1 Viking Swords What are Viking Swords? The first thing to note is that there is no such thing as a "Viking sword". In fact, I'm strongly tempted to proclaim that there is also no such thing as a Viking. There is, however, a kind of consensus that people who lived in Scandinavia between 800 - 1050, roughly in areas now known as Denmark, Sveden and Norway, are called Vikings. The origin of that name is not clear. One interpretation is that the Old Norse word "vikingr" signifies "one who came from the "vik"=fjord creek, inlet, small bay". Since the guys who came from there typically murdered, plundered, raped and took slaves, the word "Viking" became a synonym for "freebooter, sea-rover, pirate". But that is far from certain, and the meaning of "Viking" is much debated among present-day scholars. Whatever and whoever the Vikings were, they were given far more to wielding a sword than a pen. They certainly had swords, used them, and quite a few were buried with them. That's why we do have swords that once belonged to a Viking, and you can call such a sword a "Viking's sword", of course. However, the term "Viking sword" denotes something quite different;spelling details do count here. It is perceived as addressing a particular kind of sword, a special class, related to and made by Vikings. While we do have a lot of Viking's swords, they are not necessarily Viking swords. Nice little (s)word play here. Indeed, historians held and hold the view that most swords of the Viking era were produced in a region along the Southern part of the river Rhine in the heart of the Fankish / Ottonian / German empire, and that the Vikings, like everybody else, purchased or stole these swords. We do not know much about Viking's swords from the Vikings themselves. They didn't write much since most of them were illiterate. In this they weren't much different from everybody else at this time. The big difference is that before about 1000 AD they weren't Christians and thus did no have abbeys and monasteries, full of monks and such that could and would write a lot. A Viking intellectual who felt inclined to write something typically restricted himself to one or two sentences expressed in runes. Runes are a rather primitive script, more or less just a vague remembrance of the glory of Latin writings. All the tall tales from Northern Europe relating to Vikings are from later times. In contrast, we know quite a bit about the Frankish empire (and its successors) from extensive contemporary writings that survived until today. That is not to say that these writings are fully reliable. There might be quite a bit of mythology involved, take the Special Roland saga as example. Not to mention that the Special Module religious people forged documents as a matter of Module course 2). With careful interpretation we do get first- Vikings hand information, though. What we do not have are Francia many Frankish swords. Nevertheless, in serious history the general view emerged that superior iron and steel weapons, in particular swords, were a monopoly of the Frankish empire, exported all over Europe and parts of Asia. Swords made elsewhere could not measure up to the Frankish swords. That is particularly true for the famed "+VLFBERH+T" swords. This view has been (partially) contested more recently; I'll get to that. Meanwhile I'll give you two special modules about the Vikings and Franks plus more background to Viking's swords. As ever so often, the badies are better remembered than the goodies. As times passes on, they might even get a bit glorified, witness "pirates" in general and Attila the Hun in particular. To quote the present (2014) Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II: "Up to this very day, the interest in the fascinating and glamourous Vikings has never abated". Well - yes. Just like dinosaurs. You like 'em much better as soon as they are definitely extinct. The Vikings are often portrayed as ruthless robbers and conquerors, only bend on murder, rape, robbery and destruction. Alternatively, they are described as mostly peaceful and innovative farmers and traders, given to long and profitable business travels. Just their young ones got muddled up in some deplorable excesses now an then; sowing some wild oats and so on. The truth is probably not quite in the middle in this case. The more advanced and literate contemporary cultures have nothing good whatsoever to say about them. Of course those writers were biased. You tend to overlook the amiable properties of the guys who burnt down your town, raped your women, and took all able bodied and not yet killed people away as slaves. While it is true that Vikings were also large-scale traders, one of their most profitable trade goods were slaves. Slaves did no leave behind much written material for obvious reasons but we can be fairly sure that they weren't all that fascinated by their glamorous tormentors who didn't smell so good - imagine 80 men spending 2 weeks in a small boat without a rest room 1). Or, maybe, it's better you don't. The map below gives an idea about Viking home lands and settlements, their way around Europe along rivers and Iron, Steel and Swords script - Page 1 sea shores, and their dash across the open sea to Iceland, Greenland and America. The special module gives some more details about the Vikings. Viking places and travel routes More maps here and here Source: Adopted from "Der Spiegel", 36, 2014 Here we are not so much interested in the Viking culture, to use that word loosely, but in their swords. Below are pictures of typical "Viking swords": Typical Viking sword with pattern welded blade Source: Privately owned sword in Denmark. Thanks for letting me have the pictures There is no shortage of Viking's swords and pictures thereof. It is a safe bet that any (historically inclined) museum in Northern Europe has some Viking's swords. Here are examples from the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen: Iron, Steel and Swords script - Page 2 Typical Viking sword hilts as shown in Copenhagen Large pictures (with 2 more hilts) Source: Photographed in the Copenhagen museum A lot more pictures can be found in the the following links: Regular size pictures Large pictures The blade of typical Viking swords was broad, double edged with both edges being sharp, and tapered in both ways: Profile tapering, meaning he sword gets narrower closer to the tip. Distal tapering, meaning its thickness decreases from the base to the tip. The sword was a dedicated cutting weapon, well balanced and responsive, made for use by only one hand since the other one held a shield. Blade lengths from 60 cm to 90 cm have been found; 70 cm - 80cm might be most typical. In later times blades became as long as 100 cm. The total weight of a sword was between 1 kg - 2 kg; a bit on the heavy side. The pommel, even so it's hollow, may have served as a counter weight, in contrast to the pommels on earlier swords. These swords were optimized weapons despite their fancy hilts. "Many modern replica blades are not made with any distal taper, resulting in a blade that, when wielded, will feel unresponsive and heavy" asserts Wikipedia, and I tend to believe that. Details of the sword geometry do count. Interestingly, museums in locations far outside the Viking sphere of influence also have "Viking swords". Here is an example.Why is that? Because, as mentioned before, there is no such thing as Viking swords but just Viking era swords or Viking's swords. Vikings simply used the same kind of sword as everybody else in Northern Europe (and beyond), and they did not invent it. While Vikings smelted iron and Viking smiths made lots of iron things including quite likely swords, only Frankish smiths made the top-of-the-line swords. All the fancy swords possessed by Viking chieftains are likely of Frankish origin. The not so fancy ones that were made locally emulated the Frankish type. That is not only true for swords but for many things: The Vikings liked the Frankish stuff and copied it to a large extent (if they didn't rob it). Iron, Steel and Swords script - Page 3 How do I know this? Do I have any proofs for these claims as far as they concern swords? Good question. The answer is: No, I do not have direct and irrefutable proof for the sword bit. For the rest, yes, it is easy to prove - but we are not interested in copied jewelry, for example. I could provide references to any number of learned papers that, based on circumstantial evidence, come to the conclusion that Viking's swords were of Frankish origin - but nobody so far could provide straight-forward simple facts for that. Unfortunately for us, the Franks or Carolingians ceased to deposit grave goods at the beginning of the eighth century west of the Rhine, and at the end of that century everywhere. That means we have almost no finds from the core region where the superior swords were supposedly made after 800. We have indirect evidence, however, and in what follows I will give you now some ideas about that. More details can be found in the module about the Frankish Empire. As a first piece of minor evidence, look at the hilts shown in the "Stuttgarter psalter"" from 825 AD.

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